Phaistos and the Western Mesara plain in the Protopalatial period

Rethinking settlement and funerary data

On Friday 30 May 2014, at 6.30 p.m., Ilaria Caloi, Post-doc Fellow at Université Catholique de Louvain will address the topic “Phaistos and the Western Mesara plain in the Protopalatial period: rethinking settlement and funerary data,” at the Archaeological Society of Athens (22 Panepistimiou str. 22).

“The seminar deals with the development of the Western Mesara plain from the beginning to the end of the Protopalatial period (19st-17th centuries BC), focusing both on the role of Phaistos in its territory and on its relationship with the following surrounding centres: (a) the coastal settlement of Kommos, south-west of Phaistos; (b) the centre of Ayia Triada, north-west of Phaistos, and composed of a settlement and a funerary area; (c) the funerary complex of Kamilari, south-west of Phaistos; and (d) the Kamares cave, located on the slopes of Mount Ida, north of Phaistos,” as explained in the abstract of the seminar.

“Although the Protopalatial Period is often considered as a monolithic period, in this occasion the speaker will analyse it as composed of three diverse phases: MM IB, MM IIA and MM IIB. Recent revisions of settlements and funerary complexes of the Western Mesara plain have indeed provided finer chronological divisions for the Protopalatial period that allow to track changes in shorter time spans. In this way, observations on the variations and developments both of Phaistos and of the surrounding area throughout the entire period can be made phase by phase”.

The Minoan Seminar is hosted by the Archaeological Society at Athens and is organized by Efi Sapouna-Sakellaraki, Lefteris Platon and Yiannis Papadatos, with Colin Macdonald as Secretary.

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